Debbie Racca-Sittre, director of the City’s Department of Arts & Culture, said the official Tricentennial artistic events and projects “reflect the vibrant pulse of the community.”

“The City of San Antonio and Tricentennial are proud to invest in these types of arts programming, such as Common Currents, to innovate, engage, and showcase the authenticity of San Antonio culture,” she said.

More than 400 people gathered at Artpace on Thursday for the exhibit opening. Artpace Executive Director Veronique Le Melle thanked the partner organizations for helping execute a unique collaboration.

“This has been two years in planning,” Le Melle told the crowd. “This has been a labor of love for all of us, and it has been a chance to work with 300 incredible artists.”

Bonnie Arbittier / Rivard Report

The Common Currents show at Artpace draws a crowd.

Several artists in the Artpace portion of Common Currents attended Thursday’s opening.

Artist Joe Vega’s project, tied to the year 1745 and titled Acequia MDCCXLV in D-flat Major, provides an audio experience. It consists of a sound-effects machine connected to rubber pads atop a bamboo wood table.

A visitor dons headphones and taps on a pad. Each tap produces a brief, sudden sample of sound designed to convey a slice of life from San Antonio 1745. That year, Vega said, was when Spanish soldiers and native slaves finished building the Espada Acequia, a canal that brought river water to the Spanish colonial missions.

Vega said he sought to create an interactive piece that reflected genocide and forced labor of the time.

“But the bottom line was the toughest part, to hear how the natives’ history was erased,” Vega said. “I tried to put myself in that place and time and figure out how to bring that to now.”

Jennifer Datchuk created the 1737 Collection, a set of wooden and ceramic household objects such as cooking utensils, candle holders, and fire tongs. Datchuk researched Juan Banul, the lone blacksmith living and working at Presidio de San Antonio de Béxar.

“Daily use of objects is a key component to my personal artistic practice,” she said. “While it looks visually and aesthetically so different from my work, I was really in love with going back to that traditional training I have and focus on objects.”

Joseph Montano’s work relating to the year 1735, The Last of the Famous International Faithboys, invites visitors to maneuver a mirror housed in an open box atop a table. When turned, the mirror reflects different colors painted on the box’s interior, and words of a poem scribbled on the mirror become masked.

Accompanied by a musical composition, the interactive piece examines the connection between the resettlement of the Spanish presidios to San Antonio, and Spain’s overwhelming influence on local indigenous people.

“The point of it is to reflect on the culture of presidios in San Antonio, but also how their moving here was a result of them dying out in other parts in Texas,” Montano said.

Blue Star Contemporary will host works relating to the years 1768-1817 from Feb. 1-May 7.